*Amy Cooper, the woman known as “Central Park Karen,” is speaking out about her infamous encounter with Christian Cooper (no relation)—a Black bird-watcher whom she accused of threatening her and her dog in Central Park last May.
“I don’t know that as a woman alone in a park that I had another option,” she said in Tuesday’s episode of Bari Weiss’ Honestly podcast.“I’m trying to figure out, you know, what does that mean? Is that a physical attack on me? Is that to my dog? Like, what is he about to do?”
Cooper’s case made national headlines when she had a confrontation on May 25, 2020, with bird-watcher Christian over her dog being off-leash dog in Central Park. In her first call to 911, Amy said an “African American man” was threatening her and her dog. In a second call to 911, she alleged Christian “tried to assault” her.
READ MORE: Amy ‘Central Park Karen’ Cooper Now Suing Ex-employer for Discrimination
“At no time did the man later identified as Christian Cooper try to assault her,” assistant district attorney Joan Iluzzi said previously during a hearing. “Using the police in a way that was both racially offensive and designed to intimidate is something that can’t be ignored.”
Amy was charged with falsely reporting details about her encounter with Christian but the charges were eventually dropped after she completed some sort of complexion protection program.
We previously reported… prosecutors in Manhattan Supreme Court announced in February that the case against Cooper was dismissed because she completed five “psychoeducation and therapy” sessions that helped her “appreciate that racial identities shape our lives” and that “we cannot use them to harm ourselves or others,” Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi said, per NBC News.
The footage of Amy and Chrisitan’s encounter quickly went viral and ignited widespread backlash against her. Amy was subsequently fired from her investment firm job and she later sued the company for labeling her a “racist” in a statement about her viral fame and filing a false police report.
“He’s holding these dog treats in one hand and a bike helmet in his other hand, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh, my God, is this guy going to lure my dog over and try to hit him with his bike helmet?’” she said about Christian on the podcast this week. “And if I end up over there, am I going to get hit by this bike helmet?”
She continued: “Suddenly, you know, almost this victimized voicing [sic], [saying,] ‘Don’t come near me. Don’t come any closer. Like, almost like he’s terrified of me … To me that’s even more terrifying now because you’ve gone from screaming at me — if you kept screaming at me, at least it was consistent, but now his whole verbal demeanor has changed.”
Amy claimed she “explored” all options during the encounter and decided to call the police after Christian refused to stop filming her.
“I tried to leave. I tried to look for anyone who’s around,” she recalled. “There was no noise, no sound. And it was, you know, it was my last attempt to sort of hope that he would step down and leave me alone.”
Christian has yet to publicly respond to Amy’s comments.
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
